President Biden obviously misspoke on Tuesday when he implied he went over Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge commuting by train or by bar. Because obviously, there were no train tracks over the Key Bridge. The facts mangled here are in Biden's sentence.
But the unofficial Biden press secretaries at PolitiFact somehow pretended that Biden wasn't in the wrong. He was wronged.
There was no "Truth-O-Meter" rating for anybody, which would suggest these Poynter Institute functionaries know they're messing around. Their target is a Twitter account called @CensoredMen (which seems to be "pro-Palestinian," as the media politely say). It was archived as shared on a Facebook group page titled Gavin Newsom Is a Douche. The tweet is factual:
#BREAKING: Joe Biden says he's commuted over the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore many times via train.
The problem is that the bridge features no train tracks...
PolitiFact's Ciara O'Rourke, who often "checks" crazy anti-Biden items on social-media platforms and spins in Biden's favor (such as he is, in fact, a human being), jumped in with the pro-Biden/not-factual spin. The either/or in this sentence just can't be stretched:
Here’s what he said March 26 at the White House: "At about 1:30, a container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which I’ve been over many, many times commuting from the state of Delaware either on a train or by car."
The White House clarified Biden’s comments to the New York Post, which ran a story headlined: "Biden claims he commuted over collapsed Baltimore Key Bridge by train’ many times’ — but it doesn’t have any rail lines."
"The President is clearly describing driving over the bridge while commuting between Delaware and (Washington) D.C. during his 36-year Senate career," the New York Post quoted White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson saying in a statement.
Biden has a long history of commuting to the capital.
In other words, "the President is clearly describing what he MEANT to say, not what he actually said." O'Rourke followed up with more irrelevant blather about how Biden loved taking Amtrak trains.
PS: Our Maryland friends have pointed out you'd be a doofus to exit off I-95 to commute over the Key Bridge on I-695. Google Maps shows that route from Wilmington to Washington just looks like you're trying to delay your arrival:
